As the founder and CEO of WrightOne Media Group, a full-service marketing agency, Ramona Wright represents a growing but still under-recognized segment of the business ecosystem: African American women-led communication agencies that are shaping the marketing and communications landscape in Michigan and beyond.
Wright launched WrightOne Media Group in Los Angeles in 2009, initially as a specialized strategic communications firm. Nearly two decades later, the business evolved into a national, multi-division agency, offering services across strategy, experiential marketing, including event staffing, and award-winning content production.
“We are a 360 marketing and creative agency,” Wright explains. “We serve Fortune 500 brands and enterprise-level companies.” Clients have included Michigan-based Cherry Health and global brands McDonald’s, Lexus, and Lululemon—high-profile partnerships that underscore the firm’s reputation and reach. Yet Wright’s decision to expand into the Midwest marks a deliberate shift. That move places WrightOne among a small but influential network of Black women-owned communications and marketing firms operating in Michigan—a field where representation is still limited, even as demand for culturally fluent storytelling continues to grow.
Wright’s entrepreneurial drive and Midwest roots span generations. Her grandmother, she notes, was a trailblazer in her own right. “My grandmother was one of the first African Americans in the United States to establish a country club in the 1950s in Ohio,” Wright says. “She believed everyone should have access to leisure, regardless of their station in life.” That ethos of access and influencing opportunities that create community continues to shape Wright’s work today.
Growth, Gaps, and the Reality of Scaling
Despite its longevity and blue-chip clients, WrightOne Media Group faced a challenge familiar to many small and mid-sized firms: access to capital.
“I like to call us a ‘16-year-old startup,’” Wright says. “Like many teenagers, we were going through growing pains—and for us, that was access to capital.” Those challenges were compounded by the pandemic, which hit marketing agencies particularly hard.
“No one was thinking about marketing during that time. Everyone was just trying to survive,” she explains. Even as the company recovered, lingering credit impacts made traditional bank loans difficult to secure. “We had rebuilt our credit, but it still wasn’t strong enough for traditional lending institutions,” Wright says.
The experience is emblematic of broader structural barriers faced by many women- and minority-owned businesses—especially those led by Black women, who often encounter disproportionate challenges in securing financing through conventional channels.
Discovering the Power of CDFIs
Wright’s path forward came through a lesser known but increasingly vital part of the financial ecosystem: Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). “Prior to this process, I was actually unfamiliar with the power of CDFIs,” she admits. “But my team and I were very intentional in looking for alternative financing opportunities.”
That search led her to a referral to OppFund. The application process required rigor and patience—but it also provided something Wright found lacking elsewhere: transparency and guidance.
For Wright, the impact of that funding was immediate and critical. Working with major corporations often means delayed payments, sometimes stretching from 30 days to 90 days or more. For a growing agency managing hundreds of staff and contractors, those delays can create significant strain.
“When you land a big contract, it feels exciting,” Wright says. “But what you don’t realize is how long it can take to get paid.” The OppFund loan allowed WrightOne to bridge that gap.
“We used those funds to cover the space between when work was delivered and when payments actually came in,” she explains. The outcome was tangible. “But for OppFund, we would not have been able to pay more than 50 brand ambassadors,” Wright says. “The funds came at the most vulnerable time.”
Beyond payroll stability, the funding also supported Wright One’s physical expansion in Grand Rapids. The company established a presence at Bamboo, a coworking and innovation hub in the city. “It gave us the opportunity to meet people face-to-face, to network, and to do business development locally,” Wright says. For a firm deeply rooted in storytelling and relationships, that local presence is essential.
Advocating for Community Impact
Wright’s experience with OppFund has sparked something new: a desire to advocate for the CDFI model itself. “CDFIs are critical for small businesses for three reasons: education, accountability, and access,” she says. Wright points to the educational component as particularly powerful. “They help you understand what ‘creditworthiness’ actually means—and how to get there,” she explains.
The process also forces discipline. “It makes you get your ducks in a row,” Wright says. “You can’t just operate in survival mode—you have to work on your business, not just in it.”
Now, she hopes to use her platform to raise awareness. “I would love to become more of an advocate for CDFIs,” Wright says. “Because I know there are so many business owners who could benefit if they did.”
As WrightOne Media Group continues to scale, Wright remains focused on both business growth and community impact. “For us, it’s always been about relationships,” she says. “Ninety-nine percent of our clients have come through word of mouth.” That trust, built over nearly two decades, is now fueling a new chapter, one where storytelling, entrepreneurship, and financial advocacy intersect.
In Grand Rapids and beyond, Ramona Wright is proving that building a successful agency is only part of the story. The other part—ensuring others have the resources to do the same—may be her most important work yet.
